Coliseum of Shadows
by Razorwind
Summary: When Squall discovers a strange guy in the training area aboard Garden he has no idea what events are set into motion, what is the Coliseum of Shadows? what has it to do with the aincent Centran monument. DISCONTINUED


_**Coliseum of Shadows**_

Squall couldn't sleep, even with Rinoa beside him, he had been thinking again. He was thinking of Ultimicia, the sorceress from a future where all but her were dead or enslaved, thinking about how long it had taken to defeat her. First they had had to defeat her consciousness in Edea's body, then they had to defeat her, then they had to defeat the creature that was created when Ultimicia bonded with a GF that called itself Griever.

It had taken an age to kill Ultimicia, she kept prattling on about…something, Squall didn't quite remember what, before she finally died and, along with Squall, was flung into the past with the time compression. He had hoped to stop Edea from inheriting Ultimicia's powers, but he failed and had become flung adrift in time.

He never understood how he had gotten back, but he had kept thinking about the battles with Ultimicia, she had been so difficult to kill, could she really be dead? A part of him still thought that somewhere, somehow, a piece of her still existed, and that unnerved him.

He had taken his gunblade from its case and was stalking towards the training area aboard Garden, he had ordered an extension built onto it and had had that area filled with tougher, higher-level monsters. To prevent both the monsters escaping and untrained students getting in he had had the engineers build a code locked door, only he had the code.

As Squall neared the gate he saw an odd sight; there was a ring of dead monsters around a man with a raggedy, waist length, ponytail dressed in a blue highlighted, ankle length, black coat that had a long slit up the back, from the hem to the waist. There was a case in the man's hand, similar to the one that housed Squall's gunblade.

A Grat sprung at the man, who was staring at the locked door, and looked like it was going to strike him unawares, Squall was about to call out when the man's free hand lifted as glittering particles swirled around him and into the open hand, the particles then exploded towards the attacker, forming a long, purple spike that speared the Grat squarely through the middle, the spike then branched into many smaller spikes, all along its length, before dissipating, leaving the Grat to fall to the floor, adding another body to the ring.

"Who are you?" asked Squall, eyeing the case, 'it probably contains his weapon' thought Squall

The man turned, revealing his front, he was wearing black jeans and a black top, but it was at his face that Squall stared, the 'man' couldn't have been more than a year older than him, yet he seemed to have seen things Squall couldn't dream of, and probably wouldn't want to. The man has a short scar that started above his right eye and finished below it, if he closed his eye he would probably have a line on the lid that connected the two.

"The real question, Squall Leonheart, is 'who are you?' who are you Leonheart?" said the man, his thumb fiddling with the case in his hand

"………" Squall paused, just three weeks ago he could probably have answered that question easily, but now, now he didn't know. He had been lost out of time, he had actually taken the commander's position at Garden and had set about training high ranking, senior students combat classes, Rinoa was teaching them magic.

Rinoa, she was also a change, he had rescued her twice during the whole Ultimicia crisis, he had realised he loved her, he also didn't know how to keep anything but the deepest secrets of his mind from coming out of his mind when talking to her. Who was he? Definitely not the Squall he had been before.

"So, who are you? Are you Squall Leonheart? Or have you changed too much?" asked the man

"How do you know my name?" said Squall, he kind of thought it was because of his 'fame' he acquired during the Ultimicia incident, another reason he had taken the Command position aboard Garden, it was hard to get on and off if you weren't authorized.

The man smiled, "I know a few things about you Squall, and a few things you don't," answered the man

"What things? Just who the hell are you anyway!" yelled Squall, beginning to get impatient. He raised his gunblade, he still didn't know if this man was friend or foe

"My name is Inuari, but I prefer just Inu" replied Inuari, seeing Squall's stance he added, "If you want to fight, so be it" he said, calmly flicking his right wrist, the one with the case in the hand, up.

The case opened and something came spinning out, a white satin wrap unravelling from it. The thing spun back down towards the ground and Inu caught it, the wrap sliding off and crumpling on the ground. Under the cover had been a very odd looking sword, it had a sabre style hilt but with a large spiked area that branched into a thick, double edged blade with a divide down the centre, originating from a piece that resembled a flame.

Inu pointed the weapon at Squall who saw, in the flame piece a hole, a hole that reminded him of the barrel of a…

"Gunblade" said Squall, he then noticed the trigger and trigger guard, Inu's index finger was within the trigger guard, but not around the trigger. He slipped into a fencing pose, casting Wall around the area they were going to fight in.

"Yep, I modelled it from plans my father left me, this is the Twin Lance" said Inu, starting to circle Squall

Squall crouched to lower his centre of gravity as Inu dashed towards him, fencing and stabbing, his blade scraping along Squall's as Squall attempted to block Inu's attack, succeeding in deflecting it. Inu turned and charged again, his flashing blade bouncing off of Squall's, never actually scoring a hit, suddenly, Inu changed his fighting style from fencing, to sabre, swinging at Squall's head, narrowly missing Squall's scar, almost re opening it. He sped past Squall and turned back to face him.

Inuari was grinning; he was actually duelling Squall, commander of Balamb Garden and defeater of four sorceresses. He was in his element. He hacked and slashed and swiped at Squall, pleased to see that he had landed no hits, that meant the commander was still on form, they locked blades and stared at each other, both seeing the warrior's spirit in each other's eyes, Squall thought that this Inu character's eyes were somehow familiar. They sprung apart, blades flashing in the light.

Something whacked Inu in the side of the head and he stumbled sideways, turning to look at where the projectile had come from. The wall spell was down and a rather angry looking girl in blue and black stood there, the projectile strapped to her wrist, that was now pointing at him, the projectile pulled back, ready to fire. Inu recognised both the girl and the weapon, the weapon was the Valkire and the girl was…

"Rinoa!" called Squall, panting as he attempted to lever himself up with his gunblade

"Get away from Squall!" yelled Rinoa

Inu looked over to Squall, he was definitely tired, how long had they been fighting? He checked his watch, 3 minutes, not bad, but they had been going at it hammer and tongs.

"OK…We'll call it a draw." He said to Squall, wrapping the Twin Lance up in its satin cover and returning it to its case. He walked over to Squall and held out a hand, Squall took it and was hauled to his feet.


End file.
